GRAHAM secures Gateway 2 approval for Manchester Passivhaus student scheme

GRAHAM has secured Gateway 2 approval for all seven higher-risk buildings in the University of Manchester’s £530m Fallowfield Campus redevelopment. The 3,300-room student accommodation scheme is targeting Passivhaus certification, with operational energy use projected to be around 50% below that of conventional new-build student accommodation.

The latest approvals complete the building control permissions required across the campus. According to GRAHAM, all 29 blocks now have Building Safety Regulator approval to proceed with construction activity, including the 22 buildings below the higher-risk threshold.

The development will replace the university’s former Owens Park, Oak House and Woolton Hall residences with five new neighbourhoods and a central hub providing social and study space. GRAHAM will deliver the accommodation in phases, with the first 1,000 rooms scheduled to open in 2028 and the remainder completing by 2030.

The project partners describe Fallowfield as being on track to become the world’s largest single-phase Passivhaus-certified purpose-built student accommodation development. Certification remains a target for the completed scheme, alongside the projected reduction in operational energy use.

Delivery is supported by a 50-year partnership between the University of Manchester, Equitix, GRAHAM and Rothesay, with cornerstone funding from Rothesay. Equitix is the lead project sponsor, equity investor, development partner and long-term manager.

The Gateway 2 decisions followed a detailed review of the project’s fire safety, structural and construction evidence. Two of the seven higher-risk buildings received their first approvals in January 2026: both are 14-storey blocks providing more than 400 en-suite beds between them.

GRAHAM submitted its first application to the regulator in June 2025, three months before planning approval. Neil McFarlane, strategic development director at GRAHAM Investment Projects, said the early approach had been important to securing the approvals.

“We submitted our first application to the Building Safety Regulator several months ahead of planning approval, and that early, proactive approach to design and fire safety has been central to getting here,” he said.

Ben Leech, managing director at Equitix, said: “Gateway 2 approval is a meaningful step forward for the Fallowfield Campus redevelopment. On a project of this scale, it reflects the detailed work that has gone into the design, safety and delivery planning, and gives the team the certainty needed to move ahead.”

Offsite manufacture is central to the construction programme. Techrete is producing around 4,150 precast façade panels at its factories in Balbriggan, Ireland, and North Lincolnshire, with the first panels delivered to Manchester in July.

The panels combine polished reconstructed stone and clay brick finishes. They use low-carbon concrete and sandwich panel construction, incorporating structural and insulation layers within a single unit. The project team says this approach will help reduce embodied carbon.

Completion of the approvals provides a regulatory basis for progressing the full campus programme. The next delivery challenge is to translate the scheme’s safety, energy performance and offsite manufacturing designs into accommodation ready for occupation from 2028.